Lauren Costa

Michaela Hau

Laura Spinney

Jim Adelman

Kamiel Spoelstra

Maria A. Echeverry

Jenny Ouyang

Past Lab Members:

Kate Beebe

Virginie Canoine

Sara O'Brien

Nicole Perfito

Sharon Gill

Michaela Hau

Assistant Professor, Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
Princeton University

Research Interests: My main research interest is to understand the ways in which animals have evolutionarily adapted their physiological setup to the environment in which they live. I focus on tropical birds as model systems and am especially interested in finding out how the physiological system of tropical birds is organized to function optimally at low latitudes. I compare physiological patterns found in tropical birds to temperate zone species to study the evolution of complex physiolocal systems. My research integrates physiology, ecology and evolution and is aimed at a functional understanding of short- and long-term animal-environment interactions.

E-mail: hau@princeton.edu
Phone: 609-258-3508 / Fax: 609-258-7892

Education:
M.S., Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich (Biology)
Ph.D., Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich (Biology)
Postdoc., University of Washington, Seattle (Wingfield)
Postdoc., Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama (Rand, Smith)

Recent Publications:

Wikelski, M., Martin, L.B., Robinson, M.T., Robinson, N.D., Scheuerlein, A., Hau, M. & Gwinner, E. (2007) Avian circannual clocks: adaptive significance and possible proximate control by energy turnover. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B, in press.

Perfito, N., Zann, R., Bentley, G. & Hau, M. (2007) Opportunism at work: habitat predictability affects reproductive strategy in free-living zebra finches. Funct. Ecol. 21: 291–301.

Hau, M. (2007) Regulation of male traits by testosterone: implications for the evolution of vertebrate life histories. BioEssays 29:133–144.

Martin, L.B., Han, P., Kwong, J. & Hau, M. (2006) Cutaneous immune activity varies with physiological state in female house sparrows (Passer domesticus). Physiol. Biochem. Zool., 79(4): 775-783.

Perfito, N., Bentley, G.E. & Hau, M. (2006) Tonic activation of brain GnRH immunoreactivity despite reduction of peripheral reproductive parameters in opportunistically breeding zebra finches. Brain Behav. Evol. 67:123-134.

Fusani, L., Canoine, V., Goymann, W., Wikelski, M. & Hau, M. (2005) Difficulties and special issues associated with field research in behavioral neuroendocrinology. Horm. Behav. 48: 484-491.

Greenman, C.G., Martin, L.B. & Hau, M. (2005) Reproductive state, but not testosterone, reduces immune function in male house sparrows (Passer domesticus). Physiol. Biochem. Zool. 78 (1): 60-68.

• click here for full publication list